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Miller's Homemade Soap Pages: |
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ALL RECIPES are based on WEIGHTS, not volume. You will need to weigh oils and lye with a good scale. Water can be measured with a liquid measuring cup with no problems. From Kathy M: |
All recipes will yield about 7 pounds of soap, or 28 4-oz. bars, after cure.
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IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT RED DEVIL LYE IN THE U.S.!NOTE (September 2005): After receiving a couple of emails, I've finally come to believe that it's true... the company that markets Lewis Red Devil Lye has pulled it from the market and has replaced it with a liquid drain opener that contains no lye. My suspicions are that it's due to its use in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamines. This is very sad for the home soaper! :-( I've been buying my lye in bulk for quite awhile now, but for the average person that wants to make one or two batches and has gotten accustomed to buying it locally... this will need to be addressed. Here is a helpful link sent by Nancy M., whose email comment is underneath: http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/coldprocesssoapmaking/a/lyesources.htm When I bought the two remaining
containers from the local Albertsons, I was told it's
popular in this community in the production of meth. When I
mentioned it to a clerk at the JoAnn's fabric store, where I
was fruitlessly trying to find any kind of other soapmaking
stuff, I found out she's a soapmaker and that she got her
lye at the local Grocery Outlet, in bulk. They don't have it
out where anybody can see it, but if you ask and show ID,
you can buy it. |
![[No more lye!]](soap/reddevillye.jpg)
Graphic courtesy of About.com from |
The following recipes list ingredients but few procedures. If you need BASIC SOAPMAKING INSTRUCTIONS, you will find those on the main soapmaking page. For more up to date techniques, go to the Modern Soapmaking Procedures page.
In response to the most frequently asked question! This banner was generously and humorously contributed by Chris McClusky! :-) For a more detailed explanation, browse through the questions on the "Soapy Success" pages.
Here's a recipe that I made in December of '98. So many breakfast foods are represented, I should have called it Breakfast Soap! Since making it I have adjusted the oils slightly after consulting the Majestic Mountain Sage Lye Calculator, which was highly recommended.
Fats and lye solution between 95-100 degrees, the lye a bit cooler. |
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The oats can be pulverized with the blender. If you have one of those small jars that come with your blender, this works especially well for blending oatmeal and herbs for soapmaking. This soap has a gentle wholesome smell after curing and a nice scrubby quality for your face. There was a thin whitish layer on top that was hard...like a glaze almost. Might be from the beeswax?
Here's also a simpler Oatmeal Soap Recipe you can also try:
The oats can be pulverized with the blender. If you have one of those small jars that come with your blender, this works especially well for blending oatmeal and herbs for soapmaking. This soap has a gentle wholesome smell after curing and a nice scrubby quality for your face.
If you want this even scrubbier... you could add half again as much oatmeal... 1.5 cups if you like.
This was SO hard after 24 hours that I've upped the water in the version shown here! Don't wait any longer than 24 hours to cut and maybe even a bit sooner. Makes a really hard bar of soap that smells like you could eat it (if you use food grade cocoa butter that has the scent still intact)! It is really creamy and wonderful on the skin! The cocoa butter and tallow are responsible for that.
Add at light trace: 1 ounce (2 T.) peppermint oil Cocoa powder for color (see below) |
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If you are pouring into a shallow mold (so the bars are cut laying end to end instead of on edge) you could pour half the brown soap, then the white in the middle, and top it off with the rest of the brown. You will need your soap to be THICKER if you do it this way and are not swirling. Also will probably want to divide the soap in half and only put 2 T. cocoa into the second half. When you are done (and if this works) the bars should look like a mint patty with the white in the middle and "chocolate" on top and bottom (probably more like an ice-cream sandwich!).
*The BEEF SHORTENING is something I bought at a cheap grocery outlet and it gave me no idea of the ratio. In view of the fact that it was a tallow mixed with a vegetable oil, I decided to use the SAP value for lard (which was in between the numbers for tallow and soybean oil) when calculating the recipe. It's not worth your effort to try to recreate this "beef shortening". If you want beef tallow in your soap, you can render some of that using instructions on the site, and make the recipe below that calls for beef tallow, coconut oil and olive oil ("Tallow Blend Soap"). If you want to make this recipe and can't find beef shortening, you can substitute LARD in place of it, since that is the SAP number I used.
Remember this candy bar? This is for you serious peanut butter lovers! I finally tried this recipe after thinking about it for a long time. You can use the additives with any base recipe or an all-vegetable one if you prefer. Caution should be exercised if you make and share this soap, that people know of its peanut content. Some people have serious peanut allergies... even life-threatening ones. I don't know if the reaction would be the same when using it on the skin, but they should avoid this soap if they have any problems with peanuts. This soap looks pretty ugly, but I have to say that it has a very profuse and rich lather. The peanut smell is not noticable when you are using it as much as when the bar is just sitting in the dish.
Temps around 110-115 degrees
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*The BEEF SHORTENING is something I bought at a cheap grocery outlet and it gave me no idea of the ratio. In view of the fact that it was a tallow mixed with a vegetable oil, I decided to use the SAP value for lard (which was in between the numbers for tallow and soybean oil) when calculating the recipe. It's not worth your effort to try to recreate this "beef shortening". If you want beef tallow in your soap, you can render some of that using instructions on the site, and make the recipe below that calls for beef tallow, coconut oil and olive oil ("Tallow Blend Soap"). If you want to make this recipe and can't find beef shortening, you can substitute LARD in place of it, since that is the SAP number I used.
If you want to make honey soap without the peanut butter and peanut oil:
Leave out the peanut butter at light trace and substitute another oil for the peanut. The following, or a mixture of them will work: corn, canola, almond, safflower. You can also use olive if you use 23 instead of 24 ounces, but if you add that extra ounce, it won't be much of a problem since this is only about 5% discounted in the first place.
This recipe is provided for those of you who have straight rendered tallow to use and want an all around good bar with the sudsing of coconut and the gentleness of olive oil.
Temps 110-115
If I were rendering tallow from scratch again like I used to, this would be my recipe of choice. You can make soap with straight tallow or a blend of tallow and lard, but for the best of all worlds, adding coconut for sudsing and olive for its mildness does a lot for a tallow soap. If you want your bars a bit softer for cutting or are going to be using a fragrance oil with unpredictable results, you can increase the water by two ounces.
Temps 110-115 I had a coconut oil crisis awhile back and had to make do until I could get more (cheaply... no longer the small jars). This has a different lather than coconut provides, but it is smooth and silky. Would be especially good for shaving (legs or face). The beef shortening was purchased at a restaurant supply and is used for frying. I've also seen tallow combined with soybean for this purpose. I used the lard SAP value on the lye calculator so you can substitute lard for the beef shortening if you like, or mix the two. |
This bar was scented with Sweet Cakes Sandalwood-Vanilla... a nice scent to use in a tallow type soap. It caused an off white soap to turn this taupe color after cure. |
*The BEEF SHORTENING is something I bought at a cheap grocery outlet and it gave me no idea of the ratio. In view of the fact that it was a tallow mixed with a vegetable oil, I decided to use the SAP value for lard (which was in between the numbers for tallow and soybean oil) when calculating the recipe. It's not worth your effort to try to recreate this "beef shortening". If you want beef tallow in your soap, you can render some of that using instructions on the site, and make the recipe above that calls for beef tallow, coconut oil and olive oil ("Tallow Blend Soap"). If you want to make this recipe and can't find beef shortening, you can substitute LARD in place of it, since that is the SAP number I used.
The following is currently my favorite tallow soap recipe! (August 1999)
Temps 110-115 This would be my first choice for tallow soap... the best of all worlds. If you are using straight tallow and not buying a blend like this, use the "Tallow Blend" recipe above. Tallow for hardness, coconut for lather and some olive for conditioning... the cottonseed probably provides a bit of conditioning as well, but I wouldn't tend to use it on its own. |
This bar was scented with Lebermuth's Ocean Breeze FO and natural colorants were used for the blue swirl (aquamarines and a bit of an oxide from The Pigment Lady). |
*The BEEF SHORTENING is something I bought at a cheap grocery outlet and it gave me no idea of the ratio. In view of the fact that it was a tallow mixed with a vegetable oil, I decided to use the SAP value for lard (which was in between the numbers for tallow and soybean oil) when calculating the recipe. It's not worth your effort to try to recreate this "beef shortening". If you want beef tallow in your soap, you can render some of that using instructions on the site, and make the recipe above that calls for beef tallow, coconut oil and olive oil ("Tallow Blend Soap"). If you want to make this recipe and can't find beef shortening, you can substitute LARD in place of it, since that is the SAP number I used.
If you have a favorite recipe you've developed and would like to share it with others, send it to me by email and I'll post it here. If the participation is good for this, I'll eventually put these on a separate page. I've not tested these... if you have questions, better to send them to the person who contributed the recipe.
I have never made this soap myself, but periodically get a request for a recipe, so I'm passing on suggestions I've gleaned from others who have made it. If you do this and have problems... I'm probably not the person to ask! :-)
First of all, you can choose any soap recipe and make it into pine tar soap. It's a matter of adding it to the recipe you have chosen... all vegetable or animal fats. From what I've read, I think the easiest method is to add the pine tar to the melting oils at the beginning. You can buy pine tar at a feed store... it is used on horses hooves for conditioning purposes (and be sure to read the label and make sure it is 100% pine tar and not pine rosin). To save on cleanup later... use a disposable spoon to get the tar out of the container (a stout plastic spoon or even a wooden popsicle stick will hopefully do the trick) and drop the spoonfuls into the melting oils. They should break up as the fats melt and warm up and you can incorporate the tar into the fats. I'd be sure they are completely blended in before proceeding with the lye solution, etc. and you will still want to check for correct temps as usual. Pine Tar soap tends to come to trace more quickly than soap without it, so you might do well to go with a higher water addition rate for the recipe rather than the low end suggestions. For recipes on this site... around 32 ounces of water would be good. For a recipe that makes 28 bars like the ones on this page... you will likely want to add about 6 to 7 ounces of pine tar to the pot with the base oils. Scenting is kind of a moot point because the soap will cure out with the scent of pine (less tar with aging ). If you decide to scent along with the natural smell of the pine tar... pick something that will blend well with that or enhance it... and you'll have to move quickly since the soap is going to want to set up quickly and you'll have little time for extra fussing around. Essential oils might be better behaved since you are already going to have soap with a tendency toward accelerated trace. Another comment was that pine tar soap took longer to harden up during cure, but once hard that it was very long lasting.
If for any reason you have some sticking to your bowls or utensils after the mixing process... soaking them for 1 or 2 days in warm water will aid in removing the residual pine tar... but hopefully with the technique above... you'll not have that problem. If you try these suggestions and it works out well for you (or not)... please email me with feedback and I'll adjust these suggestions accordingly. :-)
I got some feedback from one gal who said that the above warning was not sufficient enough to prepare her for how FAST her soap set up! Here is another recent email that I wanted to post... this fellow is delightful to read and has some good feedback for those who decide to take the plunge. :-)
Hello again Kathy,
As you see I went for the 20%.....I used the "more is better" theory.... kill you twice as fast..... go for it ..... just do it.......
The soap really did not ever get hard around the edges so........
I did remelt this batch of soap.... if you could call it a batch of soap. I just set the Pyrex dish in the microwave, heated it till it began to froth up around the edges, reset the heat to number 2 (out of ten) and cooked and stirred. It took 30-40 minutes to have a pretty good melt.......all the hardened pieces were broken up. I cooked it another 10 and most of the small pieces were dissolved. I took it out and continued to stir till it was setting up, shaped the edges and quit. Looks like a German chocolate cake....hope no one decides to have a piece before I get the icing on.....
[Just a warning... if you decide to remelt a batch according to what Bill did... you'd better watch it like a hawk. The only thing worse than a soap volcano in your microwave oven, would be one laced with pine tar. I don't even want to think about how long it would take to clean up THAT mess!]
According to Hersh, it doesn't matter how much pine tar you add, it sets up to a point of not being able to pour it in 28 seconds, little tar or a lot of tar. I suppose it would help to use lower temperatures for the fat and lye, add additional water, (which the soap spread sheet does for you when you plug in the pine tar amount) mix with a paint stirring stick. (NO STICK BLENDER. If a stick blender accelerates a normal batch of soap, you can imagine what it does to pine tar. Instant pudding followed by instant brick.) Pour the lye while stirring, and try to get it thoroughly mixed, and poured, before it sets up. (In my case I did not even get it mixed in the container I intended to use as a mold.)
I am going to see what this soap is like.....my dog needs a bath.....ha
Later...
Bill Adams
More suggestions...
From: Pat Lowe
Date: July 2, 2009
Subject: Note About My Experience with Making Pine Tar Soap
Hi,
I've made my own pine tar soap for several years now. I use a double-boiler type arrangement to soften my pine tar before adding it to my soap base. One easy way I do this is by using a very old (small) sauce pan that I have dedicated just for this purpose. I place it on my stove top burner, add a cup or two of water in it, then add the small can of pine tar inside the sauce pan. It is VERY important to leave the lid to the pine tar can open so that when it gets hot, it doesn't explode all over my kitchen. It is also important to make sure that the water in the sauce pan does not cover more than the bottom half of the pine tar can, so that when the water boils, it does not boil over into the pine tar. Then, when the pine tar is softened to a more or less liquified state, I carefully lift the can with kitchen tongs and then pour in the amount I desire into my soap base mixture just about the time it is ready to trace. I mix it as thoroughly as possible, trying to get the color evenly distributed, and then pour it into the soap mold I have prepared for use. I've had very good luck with this method and thought I'd share it with you all. If I use less than the entire can of pine tar in my soap batch, then I just let it cool a bit again and press down the top of the can onto the can and use it for my next batch of soap. I love pine tar soap, and the users of my pine tar soap have nothing but praise for it once they use it. It is a lovely old-fashioned soap with many uses, and it is too bad that many people have to be educated on its existence and its uses.
Pat Lowe
P.S. I have never had to soak my soap making utensils for a day or two to get out the pine tar residue. What I do is use stainless steel pots and spoons, and a rubber spatula to scrape the soap out into the mold. When the pots, spoons, and spatulas cool a little bit -- not completely -- but are still slightly warm, I put them in my sink and runn warm-hot water in and over them, let them soak for about 30 minutes, more or less, and then use a dishcloth or throw away sponge and wash them out. It doesn't always 'slide out', but it is not difficult to wash out the pine-tar soap residue, either. Hope my suggestions are of use to your readers and fans of pine-tar soap-making!
*Note on Milk Soaps: Milk and honey both can cause overheating in soap. When you make a recipe with milk or honey or both, you should only slightly insulate, or not at all. With a deep mold, I think I would completely pass on insulating. If you are sure the soap is at thick trace when you pour and don't insulate... hopefully, you won't get a separation like the one shown at the top of the "Botched Batches" page! :-) -Kathy Miller
From: Charlie and Juanice Rowland of Hemphill, Texas
Mix with mixer for 15 minutes or so. Rest 5 minutes and mix 5 minutes, until mixture takes on the consistency of pancake batter. Pour into molds and cover for 24 hours. Remove from mold after 24 hour period, cut and age for about a month, with sides not touching. This makes a beautiful antique colored soap.
From: Lorien Carney
"Nutcracker Sweet" Soap (Lorien Carney)
At a fairly "thick" trace, stir in the tea (this is so that it doesn't all settle to the bottom), and pour into a suitable mold (Rubbermaid container works well). The soap is pinkish with little specks of green and brown, and looks really cool!
From: Michelle
I made my Granny a batch of lard soap last night and I used the stick blender. I used this recipe which I ran through the Majestic Mountain Sage lye caluclator and it came up perfect at 12 oz. of lye needed. I plugged these oils in because they were what I had onhand (had to find SOME use for that 4 lb bucket of lard!!)
Fats at 110, Lye at 95. I peeked this morning and it looks FINE...smooth, firm and creamy colored. The smell is really mild though, so I was wondering if animal fat soaps don't take scent as well? This is my first successful batch of oink soap.
Using the stick blender: It took longer to trace with the stick blender than the all vegetable soap (but still much quicker than by hand!) and it got thicker much more gradually than the vegetable soap. I'd say I used the hand blender for about 10 minutes to *almost trace* added my EOs blended a little more and then switched to a spoon and got a nice trace about 5 min after that.
*Note on Milk Soaps: Milk and honey both can cause overheating in soap. When you make a recipe with milk or honey or both, you should only slightly insulate, or not at all. With a deep mold, I think I would completely pass on insulating. If you are sure the soap is at thick trace when you pour and don't insulate... hopefully, you won't get a separation like the one shown at the top of the "Botched Batches" page! :-) -Kathy Miller
From: Rachael L. and posted on the Latherings Board, January 11, 1999.
I made this a couple of days ago (thanks to Michelle's making some...same Michelle as above) and it's looking and smelling very nice. It's kind of glossy, firm, and smells like warmed milk and honey, with cloves. In fact, it looks like a winner, so I thought I'd share it. It's not fancy or anything, or expensive either... and it's not vegan but it is only eo's. (I almost sound like im apologizing, huh?) I'd almost forgoten how good cloves and honey can smell!
Get the lye into the water (in two or more rounds cooling between if you feel it necessary) and set aside way before you do the rest. Melt honey into oils, heat and mix well. Cool lye solution to room temperature. Add lye slowly, really slowly. Add clove eo at a light trace, and keep mixing (by hand here). Add concentrated milk at medium-full trace. Mix well and don't use a stick blender.
From: Margie A Gilman, MAG-NIFI-SCENTS
Hello Kathy,
I have a recipe of my own that I think is just fabulous.I first made it cold process and liked it so much I just tried a hot process batch and it is looking like it turned out rather well. I'm so proud of this soap I was wondering if you would like to put it up on your site. I have been using this soap and it is only 2 weeks old (but it will only get better with age right?). It is a hard bar that has a wonderful scent ( smells like a Sex-on-the-Beach drink).
24 hours in mold... age 3-4 weeks
From: Laurance Tan
Hi Kathy,
My name is Laurance. I am a great cook and had (still have) a intense curiousity about making soaps. I decided that I should combine the two disciplines and create my own unique soaps. Recently, I went out of my own to make a batch after making my initial one with a seasoned soap maker. It was a major success. The soap smells and looks so good that I want to eat it. I have never stop since, I have created many original soaps. I failed once in a batch but I did the same recipe again the next day and it worked.
As I am of Asian descent, many of my soaps have a lot of Asian ingredients in them. I have not seen an Asian-influenced recipe on your site so I thought it would be nice to post one. I call this...
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Cut and chop the pandan leaves, stems and all into really fine bits. Puree and liquidify three quarters of the leaves with the coconut milk in a blender. The leaves should become fine specks in the mixture. Boil the mixture (If you boil stuff, they will preserve - family secret.) Chill in fridge or outside in the colder months.
Pan fry the rest of leaves in a pan on high heat with oil from the main fats. Keep stirring until fragrant. Be careful not to burn this. It should smell fragrant not burnt. Throw this in to the main pot of fats.
Here comes the surprise!!! Yes, mix the lye crystals with the coconut mixture. It will turn yellow but it will not be the color of the final result. Mix lye solution and fats between 100 - 120 degrees. Use a stick blender. Add essential oils shortly after. Please know that essential oils are not to scent but to support in this recipe. You want to keep the sweetness of the pandan leaves and coconut. Add some Vitamin E to this. (I break open the capsules and squeeze.)
MUST insulate as coconut milk is not real milk. This soap hardens anywhere from 12 - 16 hours but I cut it after 24. This makes a beautiful creamy, baby-green soap. I have attached a picture for reference. Please email me if there's a question.
Enjoy!
Laurance
From: Laurance Tan
"Nonya" is a term given to a group of early Chinese immigrant women in West Malaysia. It means "Miss Lady", probably because they were mostly well-to-do women, and it was the way the indigenous people referred to them. The Nonya men were called "Babas" though no one knows why this group of people as a whole were referred to as "Nonya", the female synonym instead of the male one. The Nonyas congregated and set up shop on the Straits between Malaysia and Singapore. They adopted the Malay culture but kept their Chinese traditions. They created a whole new sub-culture, complete with new traditional garments, way of life, language (a blend of Chinese and Malay) and most outstandingly, their own brand of unique cooking style. Their food is explosively fragrant and good to eat. They were indeed an enterprising group of people. Many were owners of rubber plantations.
I name this soap "Miss Nonya" because the spices and scents I used are very widely used in Nonya cooking. My grandmother is a Nonya, and this soap is named to honor her.
32 oz. liquid ( Water boiled with 5 inches of fresh
ground ginger, 1 tbsp of clove buds, 2 tbsp of star anise, 1
inch of fresh ground turmeric, 3 tbsp of coriander powder.
This mixture should smell fragrant, keep simmering even
after it comes to a boil until you can smell it. You can
also subsitute fresh ginger and turmeric with the powder but
it wouldn't be the same.) Essential Oils : Coriander, ginger, lime, lemon and
Jasmine.
![[Miss Nonya Soap]](soap/MissNonya.JPG)
Preparation:
Puree and liquidify mixture of ingredients. The ingredients must become really, really fine specks in the mixture. Chill it in the fridge. Add lye. Mix with fats at 100 - 120 degrees. Add essential oils at half trace. Scent as follows: Ginger (bottom), coriander (middle), lemon (supporting lime) and lime as the rising scent. Be aware that Jasmine is a powerful scent, a few drops go a long way. In this recipe, Jasmine is used as a "rounding" oil. It rounds off all the sharp edges of the other scents. This soap has a rich, dark chocolate color with a very pleasant smell even more so when you use it.
Laurance Tan
Here's an email received by Laurance:
I just wanted to let you know that I was finally able to get all the ingredients together to make the "Miss Nonya" soap. It has been only one week since making it, but I have already tested it while showering last night.
It smells and feels great! Best of all, my husband's very pleased at it's scent. I just wanted to let you know how pleased we are with the recipe.
Thank you,
Evy Ford
Lemongrass Soap Copyright 2001 by "Precious" Soaps - Maureen McGrath
Lemongrass (more essential oil) or Lemongrass Light
(less essential oil) Essential Oil Fragrance: Lemon Light or
Lemongrass Color: Lemongrass has a nice yellow color in the
strong batch. In Lemon Light, a little bit of yellow is
added. Option: Cutting into chunks then pouring pure
white batch over chunks makes an interesting bar. Lemon Light and Lemongrass
Soaps
![[Lemon Light & Lemongrass Soaps]](soap/LLLemongrassSp.jpg)
Directions:
Stick Blend: Oil mixture and Lye mixture when 130 degrees is reached until trace. Then add essential oils & color if desired. Cut in 24 hours. Cure 4 weeks, or 6 weeks for more sensitive skin.
Per Oshadhi Essential Oils Guide: Lemongrass is useful for cellulite, muscle and joint pain, and digestion. It increases circulation, and is detoxifying. Like citronella, it repels insects. Acts as a sedative, relieves stress and exhaustion, yet also refreshes the mind. Contains aldehydes.
Design Your Own Recipe! - This page will help you develop your own recipes from what you have on hand and do it in such a way as to get a predictable end product (if that's possible in soapmaking!). It includes updated saponification tables and "Properties of Oils" charts. Also included are some ideas for coloring and scent blending.
This page last updated 20 July 2009.
If you still have questions, please read through the information on the Troubleshooting Help page, MOST Frequently Asked
Questions and Modern Procedures. More can also be learned through the Botched Batches and Soapy Success pages. Many common problems have already been addressed on the site and it's difficult for me to keep up with emails these days and get anything else done. If your question involves my looking up information that you can also research, or going over numbers and recipe calculations, I might not respond if in the middle of a project around our home and garden. I apologize for this, since I've enjoyed my correspondence with people and don't like to ignore emails of any kind. Thanks! :-)
![[Oatmeal and Honey Soaps]](soap/OatmealMult.JPEG)
![[Chocolate Mint Soaps]](soap/ChocMintSoap.JPEG)
![[Bit O' Honey Soap]](soap/SoapBitOHoney.JPEG)
![[Sandalwood-Vanilla Soap]](soap/SoapSandVan.JPEG)
![[First Ocean Breeze Batch]](soap/SoapOceanBreeze.JPEG)